Iranian Mission to New York

The Iranian Mission to New York emerges in Andy Warhol’s diary less as an institution described from within than as a recurring social and diplomatic setting: a place for dinners, prominent guests, and attempts to cultivate political access. The entries distinguish the ambassadorial residence from the embassy proper, while recording how formal occasions could become entangled with the host’s political needs and Warhol’s own judgments about the people gathered around the table.

Residence and Social Setting

One dinner account makes an important distinction about the venue. Warhol describes going to the Iranian embassy, then clarifies that the gathering was at the home of Amir Abbas Hoveyda, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, rather than at the embassy itself. The residence functioned as a domestic setting for diplomatic hospitality, bringing officials and well-connected guests into the same room as people from the cultural and fashion worlds.

At the dinner, China Machado told Warhol that she had known Amir Abbas Hoveyda for at least a decade, dating back to the period when he and her husband spent time with French filmmakers in France. The conversation moved from that shared history to a judgment of Richard Avedon: Machado said he took what he wanted from people and then dropped them, and Warhol agreed, only for the others present to accuse him of behaving in the same way. The scene captures the residence as a place where diplomatic connections, artistic reputations, and personal accusations could meet in ordinary conversation.

Diplomatic Hospitality and Political Access

The mission’s dinners were not all alike. At a formal dinner attended by Warhol and Bob Colacello, the occasion was described as a substantial dinner for the Swedish ambassador. Bob Colacello had insisted that Warhol wear black tie, but they discovered they were the only guests dressed formally. The mismatch between their clothing and the room’s informality made the invitation feel less like a carefully staged ceremonial occasion than a social obligation whose expectations had not been clearly conveyed.

Warhol’s account places that dinner within a larger political calculation. He wrote that he and Bob Colacello were beginning to feel used by the Iranians. The impression had formed in Washington a couple of weeks earlier, when they concluded that Ardeshir Zahedi, the ambassador there, no longer had standing with Jimmy Carter’s administration. Having been associated with Nixon and Ford, Zahedi now wanted connections with Democrats and, in Warhol’s reading, needed their help. The New York dinner therefore appears in the diary not simply as another invitation but as part of a perceived effort to enlist social relationships for political advantage. This is Warhol’s interpretation of the approach, not an institutional statement of the mission’s aims.

Guests, Occasions, and the Dinner Table

Another crowded gathering was a buffet honoring Mr. Gardner, the new American ambassador to Italy, and his wife, Danielle. Warhol and Bob Colacello picked up Elsa Martinelli at the St. Regis before going to the event. In this account, the mission’s social reach is conveyed through the guest of honor and the party’s scale: the room was packed, and the occasion brought together diplomatic and entertainment-world company.

A separate dinner was held for Paulette Goddard. Bob Colacello had prepared the guest list and seating, but Warhol found the gathering dull because, in his view, Goddard had invited her own friends rather than interesting people or beauties. The abundance of fresh caviar offered a concrete counterpoint to his disappointment: the dinner could be materially lavish and still fail to satisfy his appetite for a more stimulating guest list. Earlier that evening, Warhol had also attended Carrie Donovan’s black-tie dinner at 21 Club, making the later mission dinner one stop in a succession of social engagements rather than an isolated formal event.

These entries show hospitality as both a diplomatic practice and a social performance. Who was invited, who arranged the seating, how guests dressed, and whether the food circulated freely all became part of Warhol’s account. The mission’s significance in the diary lies partly in this attention to small particulars: formal black tie that proved unnecessary, a packed buffet, and caviar that made a dinner memorable even when its company did not.

The Mission in the Diary’s Record

The mission appears through a method of documentation designed to preserve the previous day’s movements and expenses. In the weekday telephone routine, Warhol reported where he had gone and what he had spent; the account could include even a ten-cent call from a street payphone. The entries were conversations rather than detached institutional reports, and their record of a diplomatic dinner sits alongside details of other visits, meals, and travel costs.

Bob Colacello typed the daily accounts, attached the corresponding loose cab and restaurant receipts, and stored the pages in letter boxes. This procedure helps explain the diary’s particular view of the mission: it records occasions as lived appointments, with their transportation, guests, and impressions, rather than offering a formal account of diplomatic policy. Across the dinners, the Iranian Mission to New York is consequently presented as a point of contact between official diplomacy and New York’s social world, while the diary preserves Warhol’s changing response—from participation in the hospitality to suspicion that at least some of the invitations were intended to secure political assistance.